


Hover Tricks

by boredom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, Gen, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Some Humor, broganes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-25 21:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14986304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredom/pseuds/boredom
Summary: Set pre-series. Keith is in desperate need of help and Shiro is willing to do anything to keep him safe. Even if that means outrunning some corrupt cops.  Alternatively: Where Keith learned to pull those dangerous stunts in Season 1 Episode 1.





	Hover Tricks

When DA Roger Clark and his wife, Nichole, had adopted Keith, he thought that things might be looking up. Sure, his last foster home had been abusive and the group home wasn’t much better, but maybe this time it would be different. Being the DA, Clark was super richer, like he had a house with three bathrooms in it. It was almost like the plot of Annie was happening to Keith. He had always thought of that stupid musical as being nothing more than shitty patronizing pity-foder for people who weren’t currently in foster care, being shuffled place to place with all your possessions being stuffed into trash bags when it wasn’t being stolen by older and stronger kids. But when the Clarks adopted him, he was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, this time things would be better.

It wasn’t. Keith cursed himself for letting his guard down and actually trusting that Clark would be any different, but he wasn’t. In some respects he was worse. At least his previous foster parents had to get drunk before they’d start hitting him. Not that Clark didn’t get drunk, but he was ready to verbally berate Keith any chance he got, making sure he knew just how worthless he really was. When he did get drunk, things got worse, so much worse. In less than a year Keith had ended up in the hospital three times, which is how he found out that as the DA and being three-bathrooms-in-his-house-rich, Clark had plenty of people in his pocket that were willing to look the other way. You couldn’t get a spiral fracture falling out of a tree and falling down the stairs didn’t break your orbital socket quite the same way a fist did. 

That is how Keith started living his life, in constant fear. He snuck around the house in the middle of the day so as not to alert Clark to his whereabouts. He spent his nights huddled on his bed, looking at the door, afraid that Clark would get up and he’d have nowhere to hide (there were no locks on anything in the house except Clark’s office). He withdrew further and further into himself, hating the teachers that ignored the bruises, the doctors that turned their heads, and the other various adults that Keith should have been able to trust, but couldn’t. 

Then, Shiro came. For some reason the young garrison pilot had singled Keith out to annoy and seemed to ask a lot of questions. Keith tried to get rid of the guy, he really did, but Shiro just would not leave him alone. Apparently he “saw” something in Keith. 

He had to laugh at that. No one had seen anything in him for six years. Shiro was playing at something. You couldn’t trust anyone in this town. 

And yet, cowering now in Clark’s office while the man screamed and banged on the locked door (thank god it was unlocked when Keith was trying to get away), he couldn’t help but want to call Shiro. He had given him his number after staring a bit too long at some fading bruises on Keith’s wrist and told him to call him if he ever needed anything. 

Keith needed something. His right eye had been swollen shut, his lip was bleeding, and he was pretty sure his ribs were broken. 

“Get out of there right now!” Clark screamed on the other side. “It’s going to be worse the longer you put it off!” 

Keith stumbled over to the phone and quickly dialed Shiro’s number. It rang a few times and he felt his heart pounding in his throat. What if Shiro didn’t pick up? What if he did pick up but decided that dealing with Keith’s problems were too much of a bother? What if--

“Hello?” Shiro’s voice came through the speaker. 

Keith almost cried with relief. “Shiro, please, I need help...I don’t know what to do. He’s really mad and he might break down the door--”

“Woah, slow down there buddy. Is this Keith?” 

He wanted to slam his head into the desk. He couldn’t waste time with this. “Yes, Shiro please. You said you’d help me!” Keith said, his voice cracking on the last few words. 

“Keith! If you don’t come out of there this instant they will never find your body!” Clark screamed on the other side. 

“Jesus. Where are you, buddy? I’ll come and get you.” Shiro said. 

A cold wave of fear washed over him. “No, you can’t come here. He’ll kill you.” He was starting to regret calling Shiro. What could he do? He wasn’t in law enforcement or anything. Keith wasn’t even sure if Shiro knew how to fight.

“Keith, tell me where you’re at. I can help.” 

Before he could answer he heard what sounded like a gunshot echo through the room. Was Clark trying to shoot the door open? 

“Christ! Is someone shooting at you? Tell me where you’re at.” Shiro demanded. 

Keith decided that he couldn’t stay here any longer, and he couldn’t put Shiro in danger, especially not when Clark had a gun. He slammed the phone down on the receiver and backed up against a wall. There was no way out. Clark would get in here eventually, or get the dirty cops on his payroll to come blow the door off his hinges, and now he had gotten Shiro involved. 

He spotted a paperweight sitting on the desk. It was some ugly replica of a boat, but it was solid metal and heavy (it also hurt greatly when Clark had smashed his wrist with it). Keith didn’t really think. He was running on adrenaline now. He wouldn’t end up in juvie, not with Clark as the DA to help bribe his way out of there, but maybe, just maybe he could escape. 

He picked up the paperweight and threw it as hard as he could with his uninjured arm. It shattered the window. 

“What are you doing?” He shouted, thankfully he had stopped shooting. 

Keith didn’t have long. Clark would probably run downstairs and be waiting for him outside if he didn’t hurry. 

He scrambled to the window and climbed out. When he had first seen the two-story house, he thought it was kind of cool. Now, he was thinking that the second story was kind of high. He edged out onto the balcony, the glass shards cutting into his bare feet. Clark didn’t want to get dirt on any of his “fancy” carpets. 

He didn’t hear him at the door anymore and knew that he had seconds before Clark made his way downstairs and outside. Maybe if he broke his leg CPS would have to take him away from this man. 

He closed his eyes and leaped off the balcony, landing painfully on his injured side and getting the wind thoroughly knocked out of him. He staggered to his feet and started sprinting down the road, adrenaline consuming him and making him push harder, despite his injuries. 

He heard a roar down the road and felt his heart drop. If Clark had a car he would catch up with him soon. It’d be all over. Keith had no doubt that Clark would make good on his threat. 

Except, the roar of the engine was coming from the opposite end of the street, not the house, and it didn’t sound like a car but a hover bike. 

Before Keith could really comprehend what was happening he saw Shiro’s red hover crest over the hill and come speeding down the road. 

The road that Keith was currently standing in the middle of. 

Shit.

Luckily, Shiro seemed to spot him and slammed on the breaks, the hover shaking and spinning as it slowed down, eventually coming to a complete stop. Shiro swung off the bike and ran up to Keith. 

“What are you doing in the middle of the road?” He shouted, putting his hands on Keith’s shoulders. 

Keith flinched, partially because of the tone, and partially because Shiro was grabbing his bruised arm. 

“Woah, Keith, what happened to you? I need to get you to a hospital.” His voice was much softer, gentler, and had a slight tinge of worry. 

Keith shook off Shiro’s hand and stepped back. “I’m fine. You have to go, Shiro, you’ll get hurt.”

“You’re not fine. Your face looks like it was smashed into a wall.”

Shiro was not wrong about that. 

“Please, Shiro, I’ll be fine. He’ll calm down. He always does.”

Gunshots rang out again and Shiro pulled Keith to his chest and ducked down. 

“What the fuck? Are they shooting at you?” 

He heard the screech of tires and recognized the black car that was speeding towards them. 

“Shit,” Shiro cursed. Before Keith could talk to him again, the man wrapped and arm around his torso, picked him up, and hauled him onto the hover.

“Hang on!” Shiro revved the engine and spun the hover around before peeling off back down the road. 

“Shiro! That’s the DA, he’ll charge you with kidnapping if you don’t stop. He’ll ruin your career!” Keith shouted over the wind, wrapping his arms tight around Shiro’s torso. He couldn’t help but feel slightly excited to get to rid on a hover with the best pilot at the garrison. Even if the circumstances could be better. 

“He still shot at you and hurt you!” he shouted back. 

“Well, I did track mud onto the living room carpet.” Keith admitted.

“What? That’s no excuse.” Shiro screeched. “Shit.” 

Keith heard sirens blaring behind them and hazarded a look. He clutched Shiro in fear. Behind them were several cop cars speeding after them, Clark’s car was nowhere to be seen. 

“I told you he’d charge you with something. Please, Shiro, I don’t want you to go to jail because of me.” He didn’t want to go back to Clark’s house either, but if he could protect Shiro, then maybe something good would come out of this. 

“LIke hell I will. We’ll just have to lose them.” Shiro took a sharp turn down a side street and Keith slid to the side, almost falling off. Luckily, Shiro was quick to grab his arm and pull him back on the bike. “Hold on, this is going to get rough.”

“And once we lose them, then what’ll happen?” Keith demanded. 

Shiro took another sharp turn. “I’ll ask some friends for help. Someone at the Garrison has to have connections.” 

“He’s the DA, nobody is higher than him.”

“Just trust me, Keith. I’ll figure this out.” Shiro slammed on the brakes suddenly before spinning around into the traffic going the other way and taking off, with horns and sirens blaring all over the place. 

“Where’d you learn to drive like this?” Keith, for some reason, never really realized just how good of a pilot Shiro was. He knew his scores and how everyone at the Garrison seemed to think he was some sort of a savant, but it wasn’t until now that Keith really realized just what Shiro was capable of. 

“Um, well, let’s just say this isn’t the first time I’ve had to get away from the police.” 

Now that surprised Keith. Shiro was the golden boy, the guy who could do no wrong. How in the hell did he end up in a high speed chase before. If they survived this, and if Shiro wasn’t carted off to jail for kidnapping and all of the traffic laws he was currently breaking, he’d have to ask. 

“If we could just get out of this city, I know how to lose them.” Shiro muttered, more to himself than to Keith. 

“This is the police. Pull over!” A voice sounded from the megaphone. 

“Shiro?” 

The buildings were starting to thin out. There weren’t any more stop lights. The cars were becoming less numerous. 

“Hang on, kid, it’s about to get bumpy.” 

“If you don’t comply, we will have to use force!” The voice called out again. 

“Shiro?” 

Instead of continuing on the highway, Shiro took a hard right and sped off into the desert. “Great thing about hovers is that they can drive on almost anything.” Shiro laughed. 

“That’s great, but so can most cars these days. They’re still following us!” Keith turned to see a neat V formation of cop cars, all with sirens blaring. It was like something out of a movie. 

“They won’t be able to follow us forever.” Shiro sounded extremely cocky now and Keith could picture a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. 

“Where are we going? There’s no way we’ll be able to outrun them here.” 

“Kid, seriously, hang-on. I really don’t want to accidently toss you off the hover.” 

“What?” Now Keith was starting to get a bit worried. For all he knew, Shiro was some crazy adrenaline junkie who was about to send them over the edge of a cliff 

Wait. 

They were heading towards the cliffs. 

“Um, Shiro?” They continued to speed along. “Shiro?”

“Are you hanging on?” 

Oh god, he really was going to send them over the edge of a cliff. 

“Nononononono!” 

“Yep.” 

It was kind of fun, free falling like that, but it was mostly terrifying and Keith was pretty sure he was squeezing the life out of Shiro while screaming at the top of his lungs. Shiro, for his part, seemed completely calm by the whole thing, like he did this for fun or something. 

Suddenly, the hover pulled up and they bounced along the floor of the canyon. Keith peeled his eye open and glanced behind them. No cop cars were following and they weren’t dead. Shiro had really done it. 

“Yeah! That was my best one yet!” Shiro laughed as they sped through the canyon. They slowed to a more leisurely drive and Keith finally felt safe enough to let go. 

“What are we going to do now?” 

“We’re going to get you checked out by some doctors.”

“But--”

“Ones that aren’t on your foster dad’s payroll.” 

Keith closed his mouth and thought. “Wait, how did you know where to find me? I didn’t tell you.”

Shiro shrugged. “I looked into you. I knew that something like this was going to happen, though, the gun was a bit of a surprise.” 

“You looked into me?!” Keith felt betrayed by that. It was almost like Shiro had stalked him. 

“I mean, it really wasn’t that hard to figure out. There were a bunch of news stories about the DA and his ‘kind heart’.” Shiro scoffed. “I never liked that guy.” 

Keith pursed his lips. He wanted to be more mad at Shiro, but his ribs were hurting and his head was hurting and his mouth still tasted like blood and there was glass in his feet and honestly, he just wanted to go to bed. 

“As long as you’re sure it’s safe.” He mumbled.

“Don’t worry, Keith. It’s the Garrison, they love me.”

oOoOoOo

“Foolish! Incompetent! Reckless!” Iverson screeched at the top of his lungs. His face turned a shade of red Shiro had never seen before. 

He had managed to get Keith back to the Garrison and they had quickly taken him to the infirmary to be looked over. Then Shiro had been called into Iverson’s office. He checked to make sure Keith was fine with him going before going to face his fate. 

“Not to mention he didn’t even have on a helmet,” Dr. Holt said. 

“Mr. Clark was shooting at us, I didn’t really have time to put a helmet on him.” Shiro muttered.

Iverson made a few sounds of anger and distress before flipping on the TV to a news broadcast showing Shiro and Keith’s police chase. 

“Wow, that is some flying,” Commander Robinson said, studying the footage intensely. “You did all that with a passenger on the back?” she asked. 

“Don’t encourage him. You have a warrant out for your arrest, Shirogane.” Iverson growled. 

“What was I supposed to do? Let the DA kill him?” He turned to Dr. Holt, exasperated. “You saw how he looked when he came in here and the doctors said there are other injuries that are older. I couldn’t leave him there.” 

Dr. Holt opened and closed his mouth several times. 

Dr. Kane cut in. “Commander Iverson, I have to agree with Shirogane, that boy needed to be taken out of that home immediately. Why it hasn’t happened before--”

“Because Mr. Clark is corrupt,” Commander Robinson said, flipping through a file with Keith’s picture attached to the front. Shiro didn’t want to know how she had managed to get what looked to be police records in such a short amount of time. 

“Provoking him was not the best course of action though,” Dr. Holt said. “Keith could have seriously been hurt on the back of that speeder. What if there were internal injuries that were worsened by the flight?” 

Shiro looked down at his hands. He hadn’t really thought about that. He probably could have lost the cops in a much less...reckless manner. 

“I’m sorry. Keith called me saying that he was going to kill him. Then, when I showed up the man was literally shooting at us. I didn’t really have time to think.” 

Iverson finally sat down and massaged his brow. Finally, he sat back. “You’re damn lucky I know some people, Shirogane. This’ll be a mess to clean up.” 

“I’m all for getting some corrupt people out of power.” Commander Robinson said. 

“I’m all for it as well, but we can’t put Keith at risk. We’ll have to do this carefully,” Dr. Kane replied. 

The room was silent for a moment. 

Finally, Iverson sighed and looked at Shiro. “You’re free to go, Shirogane, but I don’t want you leaving this campus until this is all cleared up, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Shiro saluted before walking out the door. Being on house arrest was going to suck, but he did understand that there was currently a warrant out for his arrest so he should just be glad that Iverson wasn’t handing him over to the cops until this whole thing was cleared up. 

For now, though, he had to go make sure Keith was alright.

oOoOoOo

Keith didn’t want to believe it was true, there had to be some sort of a trap. Here he was, at the Garrison, in the medical ward, being treated for all of his injuries and no one had even mentioned sending him back to Clark. He wanted to believe that he was really free, but he had been burned too many times. Plus, he didn’t really know what was going to happen to Shiro, he had broken the law, afterall. 

His worrying subsided somewhat when Shiro walked through the door. He spotted Keith and smiled broadly. 

“Hey, buddy, how’re doing?” he asked, walking up to the bed. 

“They gave me some painkillers, so I can’t really feel anything. What happened with your commander?”

“Iverson?” Shiro shrugged. “Nothing. He likes to yell a lot so nothing new there.”

“You’re not in trouble?” He was still afraid that Shiro would be arrested or kicked out of the Garrison for what he did. 

“Why would I be in trouble?”

Keith stared at him. “Have you seen the news?” He gestured with his uninjured arm towards the screen that was showing the highlights of their chase through the city, culminating in Shiro’s dive off a cliff. 

Shiro shrugged. “They believed me when I said I was trying to get you out of a bad situation. Why would they punish me for that?”

Keith stared down at his bedsheets, feeling an overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty wash over him. “What’s going to happen to me now?” 

Shiro sat down on the bed and wrapped and arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. “I don’t really know. Iverson is going to get in touch with his contacts and see if what we can do. You’re not going back to that house, Keith, I promise.”

Keith tried to shrug off his arm, but it was heavy and he was still a little weak from the injuries and the drugs. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I’ll keep this one kiddo. Besides, I think it’d be fun to teach you how to do some of those hover tricks just in case you’re being chased again.” 

Keith perked up at this. “Really, even the cliff dive?” 

Shiro laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Maybe hold off on that one. It’s not like you’ll ever need it.”

“Come on, Shiro, you never know.” He begged. 

“First you got to learn how to drive the hover.”

“Come on, Shiro.” 

“Driving lessons first, and then hover tricks, deal?”

Keith thought for a second before nodding. “Deal.”


End file.
